Published: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 at 4:00 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 at 4:39 p.m.

For the first time in Hollywood East's history, Wilmington has spawned three No. 1 hits at the box office in one year with the release of "The Conjuring," "Iron Man 3" and "Safe Haven."

Now, movie buffs and local film industry leaders look to the Port City's latest flick, "We're the Millers," a raunchy comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis, to see if moviegoers will flock to the film or if the R-rated road-trip will run out of gas at the box office.

The ensemble comedy, which is projected to gross about $22 million domestically in its opening weekend, will battle Matt Damon in sci-fi thriller "Elysium" for the top spot this weekend, according to BoxOffice.com. "Elysium" opens locally Thursday and is expected to make about $10 million more than "Millers," according to the website, which tracks ticket sales.

"It's been amazing that Wimington has had all these big releases," said Dave Monahan, chairman of the University of North Carolina Wilmington's film studies program. "The trailer of ‘We're the Millers' is really funny and audiences know what the story is. I'm not sure if ‘Elysium' will draw as wide of an audience ... the concept is cool, but the trailer doesn't make clear what exactly the story is. It's not a slam dunk. Based on what I've seen, I'm going to say ‘Millers' is going to do well."

The New Line comedy, which premieres Tuesday night at local cineplexes before opening in wide release Wednesday, throws together a snarky pot dealer, David (Jason Sudeikis), a stripper, Rose (Jennifer Aniston), and a pair of teens, Casey (Emma Roberts) and Kenny (Will Poulter), as a phony family so the dealer can smuggle marijuana from Mexico in an RV to pay off a debt to his supplier.

It's Cheech and Chong meets "Little Miss Sunshine," said Monahan.

"That's fun," he said. "I think the concept of a family coming together on a road trip is a good hook. There are recognizable stars – Jen Aniston looks great in the trailer – and it feels like it's raunchy enough without being too raunchy."

Developed by writing teams Bob Fisher and Steve Faber ("Wedding Crashers"), and Sean Anders and John Morris ("Hot Tub Time Machine") and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber ("Dodgeball"), the movie filmed in Southeastern North Carolina and in New Mexico about a year ago. Several downtown Wilmington spots stood in for Denver, while filming locations on Blue Clay Road, Carolina Beach State Park and Dow Road in Kure Beach were used for some of the road-trip scenes.

Although "Miller's" hometown audiences may be drawn to a feature that shot in their locale, it's unlikely the film will make as much money in its opening weekend as this year's biggest local hits, "Iron Man 3," and "The Conjuring," which earned about $174.2 million and $42 million during their opening weekends, respectively.

Since "Iron Man 3" kicked off the summer movie season with its debut at No. 1 in the United States on May 3, it has flown from its North Carolina roots to score more than $1.2 billion in global ticket sales. The third installment of the Marvel franchise also doubled the worldwide gross of the two prior installments ($585 million for "Iron Man" and $623 million for "Iron Man 2") and made more money in its opening weekend than any other made-in-Wilmington movie has made in its entire run, including "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1990), which earned a grand total of $135 million domestically.

More recently "The Conjuring," which was met with good reviews by film critics, has grossed about $110 million domestically since its July 19 debut.

Those are tough odds for "Millers" to beat, since its only expected to make about $83 million in the U.S. during its entire theater run, according to BoxOffice.com. It's also been met with poor reviews and a mediocre rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

"I don't know enough to say whether it will premiere at number one, but the R-rated comedy is a marketplace that's made big money in the past with films like ‘The Hangover,'" Monahan said. "It feels like one of those."

Or, it might perform like that of the region's first hit of the year, "Safe Haven."

Starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel, the Nicholas Sparks film adaptation edged past the action sequal "A Good Day to Die Hard" to narrowly win the Valentine's Day box-office race. "Die Hard" later rebounded and took the weekend, but "Safe Haven" still earned about $21.5 million in its first few days in theaters.

Studios often look at weekend pairings when deciding when to schedule a release to ensure that a film won't face off against a similar movie in its opening weekend, Monahan said.

On deck for this week are "Elysium," "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" and Disney's "Planes."

"It seems that increasingly, they're (studios) going out for the same audiences, so they may not want to compete against one another for the same viewers," he said. "They look at each weekend and place themselves where they think they'll do well. Since there's no other comedies for it to contend with, that could help ‘Millers.'"